Tag Archives for funerals

02Sep2010

Buffalo Soldiers: Living for Death in the Tana Toraja

Funeral buffalo sacrifice, eyes open, throat slashed, dying in a pool of its own blood on the grass. Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

“Are funerals like this in London?” asks my new Torajan friend. The dead man’s drum-shaped coffin emerges from the matrimonial bedroom where he has “slept”, preserved in formalin, with his family for the last eight months. Now he has left the house, he is finally dead, his soul winging its way towards the afterlife. “Not [...]

Filed Under Adventures | Indonesia | World School |
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09Mar2010

As Conservationists Quietly Weep…

not-quite-the-m40-but-the-sentiments-are-similar

Some way into Laos, fresh out of Lao Bao, Vietnam, and heading for Savannakhet, our bus stops at what I guess is best compared to a service station/gas station/Little Chef. You know. You have a pee. Eat and drink a little. Do a bit of shopping. Stretch your legs. Standard roadside stuff. Now, rice whisky [...]

Filed Under Laos | Places |
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